Kanak union leaders in Paris reject initiative to change voter lists in New Caledonia

(17 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris - 16 May 2024

1. Various of gathering at Republique square supporting Kanak protests
2. Mid of French MPs
3. Wide of protest
4. Close of New Caledonia (Kanaky in Kanak) flag
5. Various of Kanak delegation leaders during press conference
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers:
“Every life counts. Every life counts. No one has the right to take someone’s life. So we regret this very much. Even just the fact that things have got out of hand, we regret that very much. Although we have an explanation for it, we regret all of this. We’re also sorry to see young Kanaks being killed by militias. It’s very hard to accept it, to even understand it.”
7. Wide of presser
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers:
“We’re part of various structures and our elders are holding talks locally, so we wish for the situation to calm down, of course and to see the French government make a strong political statement rather than send troops. That’s not something that will get talks back on track. Starting a conversation would be a strong political statement. Sending the army to another country is not usually to hold talks.”
9. Mid of Kanak leaders during presser
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers:
“We’re losing this Kanak specificity that we’ve had over this island for the past 3,000 years. We welcomed with open arms other people who arrived there, voluntarily or against their will.”
11. Wide of Kanak leaders
12. SOUNDBITE (French) Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers:
“We’ve been imposed other people and a democratic system that only validates a colonial takeover by another population. I’ll take Guadeloupe (French Caribbean island) as an example or French Guyana, where the Indigenous population has all but disappeared.”
14. End of presser
STORYLINE:
Violence raged across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day Thursday, hours after France imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory, boosting security forces’ powers to quell unrest in the archipelago that has long sought independence.

French authorities in New Caledonia and the interior ministry in Paris said five people, including two police officers, were killed after protests earlier this week over voting reforms pushed by President Emmanuel Macron's government turned deadly.

At least 60 members of the security forces were injured and 214 people were arrested over clashes with police, arson and looting Thursday, the territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said.

He said that in addition to 1,700 security forces troops that have already been deployed to help police, 1,000 more are on the way but the situation “remains very tense, with looting, riots, arson and attacks, which are unbearable and unspeakable.”

Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers, said he regretted the loss of life.

"Every life counts. No one has the right to take someone’s life. So we regret this very much," he said.

"Even just the fact that things have got out of hand, we regret that very much, although we have an explanation for it, We regret all of this. We’re also sorry to see young Kanaks being killed by militias. It’s very hard to accept it, to even understand it.”

Two members of the island’s Indigenous Kanak community were among the five dead, French Interior and Overseas Territories Minister Gerald Darmanin said Thursday as he vowed that France "will regain total control.”










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